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Here’s a little one. They’re nice, too.

The big museums are a good place to charge your batteries but you have to pay attention to the dozens (hundreds?) of smaller galleries that dot the city. There’s lots of satisfying work being produced that doesn’t make it into the mainstream. Plus, these smaller exhibits are less of a time commitment and, hence, less exhausting. I saw this one on my lunch hour! It beat the hell out of another baloney sandwich at my desk.

In the tiny Bridge Gallery on Orchard Street just south of Delancy, the folks at SOFTlab installed CHROMAtex.me. It was a site specific installation constructed from pieces of photo glossy ink jet printed paper. The largest portal of the piece faces the street. You feel the vortex suck you in as you walk by.

Each small piece of paper is precisely color coordinated so that once constructed, it produces a smooth blend from one shade to the next.

According to SOFTlab, there are over 4,000 pieces of paper used. As you walk around the piece, you can stick your head in the various portals and get different views of the color schemes.

Guess how the piece is held together? Binder clips! The anomaly is that the first thing you see when you walk in the gallery is how the piece is constructed. Normally, such mechanics are hidden from the viewer. The chaotic texture of the exterior is in stark contrast to the smooth interior.

The piece is suspended from the ceiling by barely visible wires, giving it a floaty, weightless feeling. How cool is that?

Thanks to JZ for pointing me in this direction. And he doesn’t even live here!

21 thoughts on “Here’s a little one. They’re nice, too.”

As a lover of outsider/folk? art good old Pittsburgh is top notch, sure we have the Carnegie and the Warhol but we have tons of little galleries with a lot of interesting stuff, spot on observation sir, and of course we get lots of ex-new york artists who want to live cheap and still create while not working three jobs to pay the rent, so the talent level is pretty high.

The red ones are so orifice like they make me want to crawl inside. I’m always amazed that there are people who can not only come up with such ideas, but can then execute them so damn well. I really enjoy being able to see the way they are constructed, too, it makes me realize, even more, that I could never achieve something like this. And, I’ve always had a bit of a thing for stationery so that these are made of paper and (what we call) bulldog clips makes them even more compelling.

Kono: I’ve been dying to visit the Warhol Museum for years. And I drive by every time I go back to Clevo to visit my family. The notion that New York the the only place to see art is retarded, yet some folks prescribe to that belief. Pat: It really does beacon you from the street. You can’t walk by without going inside!TB: It gets hard to keep up with sometimes. I didn’t even know about this until someone who visits here pointed it out to me!Dinah: You’re right! It looks like guts! I didn’t see it until you pointed it out.Dolce: If you still had your hair I’d have them send the clips for your use after the exhibit closes.Eryl: I, too, could never come up with this. But fear not. They’re nothing without an audience. We count for that much.

for some reason – perhaps due to my artistic retardation – it was hard for me to grasp the scale of this until you got to the bit about the binder clips. maybe i should have re-read that part about “sheets of paper” a few times…

Girly: I though we were held together with equal parts hope and fear. It’s binder clips? Is that all?Daisy: One could say that you’re confusion about the size and scope could be considered part of the “art.” I wouldn’t say that, but someone might.Nurse: Very cleverly conceived. You just wanted to poke your head in these portals.Jo: Back to the womb, is it?SB: Yes, that’s the unique aspect. Most artists don’t want you looking behind the curtain. Only at the results. These guys put it front and center.

This is really cool, I myself would have a hard time seeing something like this. I would want to poke my finger through the inside to see if it would rip….kinda like wallpaper that is wrapped in a corner.MT

That is so cool. Sometimes when I look at your blog I realize just how provincial I am, in my little nabe…I tend to stay here in a loop of errands and walking the kid to and from activities. I should get out more!

MT: That’s a nice little analogy you drew there. Well done. Who would resist poking your finger through?Peal: Too late. For all of you. The damn thing closed already. It wasn’t open very long. They should remount it in a proper museum.Leah: People come from all over the planet to see things that are just a subway ride away for you. “Living in their tide pools, they soon forget about the sea.”

Gentleman that you are, perhaps you’ll find time to see thishttp://booklike.blogspot.com/2010/10/reporting-on.htmland give me your slant.One of the featured artists is a fellow-member of a swap group.(She’s in a couple of the photos -third from top and bottom right.) Thankyou.

Glad to see you went….and doubly enthused that you enjoyed it! You are not an easily satisfied man (a good thing), which tells me that it is very successful at what its trying to do…..which, in turn, bums me out that I will not get a chance to see this before it comes down.